The conventional techniques in blood coagulation research are primarily based on the determination of clotting or lysis times, procedures which record the moment when phase transitions take place. These techniques tend to treat clotting time as the end point of a coagulation process, and lysis time as the only major event occurring during fibrinolysis. These conventional techniques consequently confine the research domain within narrow limits. In view of this difficulty, a technique identified as rigidity measurement or elasticity measurement has gained increasing importance in the study of various problems in blood coagulation. This technique provides a unique method with which to follow the entire clotting and gelation processes and thus adds new dimensions to the study of blood coagulation problems. The technique is superior since the parameter (rigidity modulus, G) being measured best reflects the physiological function or pathological effect of the fibrin (plasma or blood) clots.
Different devices have been used for the measurement of clot rigidity. They include the simple device for measuring the tensile strength of fibrin strips (Ware et al. Archives Biochemistry, 13, 231, 1947), a photoelastic wave propagation method (Ferry and Morrison, J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 69, 388, 1947), the thrombelastograph method (Hartert, Ztschr, Ges. Exper. Med., 117, 189, 1951), the use of a viscoelastorecorder (Kaibara and Fukada, Biorheology, 6,329, 1970), the sophisticated Weissenberg rheogoniometer for measuring the complex dynamic viscoelasticity of the gel (Copley et al. Biorheology, 7,81, 1970, Glover et al. Thrombosis Res, 7,185, 1975, Overholser et al. Biorheology, 12,309, 1975), and the use of a Couette elastometer for measuring the static elasticity of fibrin gels as described by Hermans et al, J. in Polymer Sciences, 3, 1859, (1965) and Shen et al, Biochemical Biophysical Res. Communications, 56, 793, (1974), Federation Proceedings, 34,345, (1975), Thrombosis Res, 6,255, (1975).
The invention will be better understood with reference to the following description.